When we got to Victor’s bedroom, we were both surprised to find Gabriel on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. The king-sized bed was made with a white bedspread and plush with dozens of pillows. The baby grand piano dominated the room in the center. The silver, grays, whites and darks of the floors and walls all made Gabriel’s clothes and even his skin seem to pop in contrast.

Gabriel was lying sideways with his knees bent. His two locks of blond hair fell across his eyes. He kept up the color before, but at the moment, I realized the roots were showing by about an inch, matching the rest of the hair in the back.

His hands were over his stomach. He wore jeans and a yellow tank shirt, and he was barefoot. There were pink crystal studs in his ear, the three black rings and a pink ring added in around the crest.

He slowly turned his head as we approached. The moment he saw it was us, his crystal light eyes widened immensely. “About time,” he said. He sat up swiftly and relief flooded over his expression. “Hey! What are you doing here?” He paused and analyzed my outfit. “What the hell are you wearing?”

“We had to run out the door,” I said.

Luke shut the bedroom door behind us. “What are you doing here?”

“I had Pam drop me off when I was supposed to meet Victor, but I don’t know where he is. He’s off doing something. Probably an Academy call.” He yawned and stretched. “I’ve been waiting for someone to come by.”

“Was someone else going to come over?” I asked.

“I was going to wait for Victor,” Gabriel said. “Mr. Blackbourne was going to come by if no one else did, but something happened. What car did you all bring?”

“None,” Luke said. “Kota dropped us off. We were followed for a bit, so he went back to see if he could find him.”

Gabriel made a face, exposing his teeth. “There’s no car here for us to take. So I guess we’re stuck unless we walk down to the hospital.”

“It’d be a bit of a walk,” Luke said. “And we probably shouldn’t take Dr. Green’s car right now. Not unless it’s an emergency.”

“What’s Mr. Blackbourne doing?” I asked.

“Mr. Blackbourne things,” Gabriel said. “We really need more cars.”

“What happened to your bike?” Luke asked.

“It’s too damn cold to drive that thing right now,” he said.

Luke walked away from me and toward the bathroom. “Then let’s do something fun since we may be here for a bit. Think up something. I’ll be right out.” He closed the door behind himself.

I went over the piano and sat on the bench. Gabriel jumped up and joined me, sitting next to me, placing his phone on top of the piano.

We toyed with the piano, figuring out Marry Had a Little Lamb, and then testing every key.

“Should we be messing with it?” I asked him.

He tapped at the black keys, making his fingers look like little legs jumping from one to the other. “It’s a piano. You’re supposed to mess with it.”

His phone buzzed, and he scooped it up off the top of the piano, checking the message.

“Is it them?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s Victor. But it looks like it is just us up here for a while.” He moved the piano key cover over until it closed. “So we...probably shouldn’t mess with this.”

“So we don’t make noise while Victor isn’t here? So no one hears us?”

“No,” he said sheepishly and then grinned. “He just knows I like playing with it when he isn’t here, and he just said to stop. He just had it retuned after the last time.”

“What did you do to it last time?”

“Nothing!” he said, a little too quickly. He looked around. “But there’s nothing else to play with. I’m not allowed on his computer, and that’s boring. It’s all dumb code stuff.”

“We could...watch TV?”

“Mmm...” He shrugged.

I glanced around the room, at the black and white décor, and then the closet. “Should we sort the closet?”

“That’s what I was doing before you got here,” he said. He tapped his fingers like he was playing the piano over the cover. He swung his legs around until he was sitting facing the other way on the bench, and then leaned back against the piano with his elbows propped up. He slid over a little, crossing in front of me, until his face was near mine. “You know what I’m thinking?”

He was close, and his breath was warm. Part of me was terrified at the crazy possibilities he was feasibly coming up with. “I don’t want to cut my hair right now.”

He chuckled.

“Gabriel!” Luke said from the bathroom, his tone light and playful. “Sang! Come see.”

We scrambled off the bench. Gabriel got to the door first and held a hand out to me. “Hang on,” he said. “Let me make sure he didn’t leave a weird shaped doodie and now he’s wanting to brag.”

I wrenched my mouth open to make an “o” shape.

“I was twelve when I did that!” Luke shouted from the bathroom. “And that’s not...I didn’t poop! Just come see.”

Gabriel opened the door. I braced myself to avoid looking toward the toilet, just in case. Luke was tricky.

Luke was on the floor, peering under the sink, and surrounding him were several gift baskets. Each one cellophane wrapped and full of bath oils, bath bombs, salts and a wide range of similar concoctions.

Gabriel picked up one and examined the contents. “Are these new? I didn’t notice these before.”

“Yeah, they’re new,” Luke said. He chuckled and his eyes caught my attention. “I’m pretty sure these are meant for you.”

“Shouldn’t we put them back?” I said. “I mean, what if those are for him? Or a gift for...like a cousin or something?”

“He wouldn’t buy his cousin bath bombs,” Luke said. He brought around his phone, poked at it with a forefinger to type in a message. He spoke as he typed. “Can...we...play...with...gift...baskets...under...sink?” He sent the message and waited. When the phone buzzed, he read, “Leave a few for Sang.”

“Well, she’s here,” Gabriel said. “That means we get to open all of them?”

“Man, Sang...you get all the good stuff,” Luke said. He placed three of the smaller baskets back into the cabinet. There were still a few in there he hadn’t pulled out. “We’ll save those for Victor. Or next time.”

There were four left out for us. We placed the biggest one in the middle and we each took one of the other baskets.

It felt a little weird to open it without Victor here, since he was nice enough to get them. “Maybe I should wait,” I said. “Did he mean these to be a gift for me?”

“I’m sure it was because of last week, when we said you liked the bath bomb,” Gabriel said. “And he just said we could play with them.” He stabbed a couple of fingers into the cellophane of his basket and widened the hole. He pulled out an item, a box of three various soaps. He put the box to his nose and sniffed. “The box says Korean Night, but I don’t know what Korea smells like. Is it really?” He sniffed again. “Wow, actually smells spicy.”

Luke opened his package completely, spilling the basket’s contents onto the floor. There was a pipe-shaped container that was the biggest and he took off the lid. He reached in, pulling out a big round bath bomb in a light blue shade. He sniffed it. “Cotton candy? I like this.”

I turned my basket around, checking out the inside without opening it. Everything was displayed so nicely, I didn’t want to break it open. “What’s a face masque?” I asked.

“Oh man, I want to try one,” Gabriel said, putting his basket aside and sliding over to look. He put his face to my shoulder to examined my basket and did some noise that was a cross between a grunt and a squeal. “Fuck it. We’re having a Victor spa day.”

“In honor of Victor?” Luke asked.

“Right,” Gabriel said. “For Victor.” He went back to his basket. “Okay, pull out everything you want to try. We’ll organize it a bit to put it in order. I’ve seen those spa night routines on YouTube. Been wanting to do that.”

Luke held up some bath bombs. “Do we want to smell like Korea or candy or ocean or...? I’d say candy but it makes me hungry.”

“First, we need to get ready.” Gabriel picked out a couple of items from his basket, putting the rest aside. He pointed to me. “Go get on a bathing suit.”

“Do I have a bathing suit here?” I asked. “I think I’ve only got one.”

Gabriel considered. “Like I said, go find a bra and underwear that won’t get ruined in a bath. Those are close enough to bathing suits...And then remind me later to get you more bathing suits.”

I considered the bikinis I’d seen in movies on occasion and was pretty sure he was right.

I raced to the closet, leaving the boys to sort out all the items from the baskets.

Victor’s closet was a small room in itself, larger than Kota’s bedroom. I passed a section of Victor’s white Armani shirts and dark pants. There were small sections around the whole room, each one had a display of various styles of men’s clothing. North’s was all black. Mr. Blackbourne’s mostly consisted of gray suits.

There was a section in the back that was spaced off for my clothes. It was mostly noticeable because of all the pink. A large number of them were completely new to me. Victor did a lot of shopping for me.

There were drawers below hanging clothes, and inside were various underwear and bras and other small items.

I reached in, pulling out a pair of underwear that was black with a pink heart on the butt. Then I found a bra that looked to me more like a bikini, with a band going around my neck instead of over the shoulders.

I got undressed, intending to go back after we were done and tidy the pile I left in the closet later. I put on the underwear and bra and then sought out a robe. I wore it but I left it open. Gabriel had pretty much seen me naked, and Luke had seen me in underwear before. I was just a little chilly.

By the time I returned, the boys were hovering over the tub as it was filling up. Luke had his hair piled high in almost a bun on his head. Gabriel wore a stretchy band over his head to hold his hair back. They were both shirtless. Gabriel’s button on his pants was undone, partially revealing the gray boxers underneath.

Luke held a cell phone to his face, watching a video. “Okay, wash our faces and then...” he waited as the video played on. The sound was really low, so I couldn’t hear what was said. “Then she’s...putting on the...” He looked at the pile of supplies on the corner of the large marble tub and selected one and looked at the packaging. “There’s an astringent? And then the black stuff.”

“Clean our faces, got it. That’s what I needed to know, if we had to wash our faces before the masque part.” Gabriel turned when he noticed me and smirked. “What the fuck? I thought you said you didn’t have a bathing suit.”

“It’s not a bathing suit,” I said.

His lips twisted a bit. “God damn, I can’t tell anymore.” He motioned to the tub. “Let’s get in. We’ll do everything in the tub.”

I put the robe on a hook near the tub. The heat from the water was steaming up the room, fogging the mirror a little.

I climbed up and then squatted on the side of the large marble tub, looking into the water. I reached in, touching it. “Do we have bubbles?”

“Let’s put the bombs in first,” Luke said. “I want to see them dissolve before we put the bubbles in.”

We all sat on the edge of the tub, leaning over as Gabriel picked out three bath bombs he thought smelled similar enough. We probably needed so many because the tub was huge. He tossed those in together.

We grew quiet, watching the bombs do small spins as bubbles fizzled up from them. Colorant escaped, making the water around them a purplish-blue hue.

Luke stuck his hand in and felt the bubbles over top of the bombs. “You can kind of feel it.” He squinted at his hand in the water and then reached further in. “Hang on, what’s this? There’s something in the bomb.”

Gabriel and I leaned in, and Luke pulled out a glowing cube, flashing blue green and yellow with an apparent LED light inside.

“Woah,” Gabriel said. “I didn’t know they put stuff in the bombs.” He reached into the tub. “Does this one have something?”

When he touched another bomb, it didn’t have a cube, but it released something that looked like soap flakes. The flakes were shaped like little rose petals and they floated on top of the water. The more the bomb evaporated, the more tiny petals appeared.

“Oh my god,” Gabriel said. “I know what I’m researching when I get home.”

“You’re going to start making bath bombs?” Luke asked.

“Meh,” Gabriel said. “I always collect kits for stuff I never have time to put together. I was just thinking I want a collection of bath bombs. I want a surprise every night.” He grasped the hem of his jeans and started sliding them down his hips. “Let’s get in already.”

Seconds later, Gabriel and I were sitting together in the bath.

“Put in the bubble bar,” Luke said.

Gabriel did, keeping it in his hand and letting the falling water from the faucet pour over his hand. Within moments the bath was absolutely full of bubbles.

“I don’t think I was supposed to use a whole bar,” Gabriel said. “But it is a super huge tub.”

Luke stayed on the edge, pointed at me, and then motioned. “Look that way for a second?”

I didn’t understand why, but I looked where he wanted. A second later, there was a whisper of clothing being removed and then the water shifted. I turned back just as Luke was settling down into the tub.

“Ah,” he said and grinned. “I didn’t want to have to find underwear.”

“Fuck...Luke,” Gabriel said. “I buy you shit, and you never wear it.”

“I don’t like underwear,” he said and relaxed back, stretching his arms out behind him.

Once we were in the tub, we became incredibly lazy. Gabriel put on one of the masques over his face, he said for testing purposes. Luke fiddled with different containers of bath salts, occasionally adding the sweeter smelling types to the water. I sat back, watching both of them with my head propped up on a bath pillow.

I breathed in the smells, felt the warm water and was amused by Gabriel and Luke’s antics. Our legs occasionally collided in the tub, and eventually, I had my legs propped up just at Gabriel’s knees.

He plopped a hand on top of my upper thigh as he picked at the black masque on his face. “Does this look dry yet?”

“Shouldn’t you have pickles on your eyes?” Luke asked.

“I think you mean cucumber,” Gabriel said. “Shit, we forgot cucumbers.”

Luke laughed and leaned his head back, using a towel as a bath pillow. “We need one of these in whatever house we live in later.”

“Fuck yeah,” Gabriel said. “I’ve been thinking about that. We need a huge fucking house.”

“We do?” I asked.

“Like Lily’s,” Gabriel said. He started peeling the mask off of his chin to test it and then stopped and smushed the stuff back onto his face. He refocused on me. “I’m hoping to move out, soon. Pam’s about to move her new stupid boyfriend in.”

“Is this the last stupid boyfriend, or is there a new stupid boyfriend?” Luke asked.

“I don’t even know any more,” he said. “She’s gotten into the whole ‘I can date who I want’ thing. But it’s getting weird. And I know Victor wants to pretend he’s off to some elite school soon so he can get away.”

I turned my attention to the ceiling, noticing the elaborate carved ceiling tiles. “So I’m not going to be the only one between houses?”

“That’s what I was saying,” Gabriel said. “We need a place for all of us.” He swished his arms in the water, drifting the bubbles in different directions. “I’ve been asking Lily how she works it out. Sounds like she’s got her own bedroom, and the others have different bedrooms, so everyone has their space. And some days Lily even sleeps by herself.”

I blinked rapidly. “I haven’t even thought about where we’d all sleep.”

“I like sleeping near Sang,” Luke said.

“Yeah, me, too,” Gabriel said. “But we can’t all the time, I guess.”

Luke grumbled. “We can if we had a huge bed.”

“I’m okay with that sometimes,” Gabriel said. “Like when we do sleepover things. But let’s get real a second. Do you really want to be in the same room when Silas and Sang are doing...things?”

“I don’t mind,” Luke said.

Gabriel snorted and he turned his head to me. I turned on the pillow to meet his gaze. “If Luke had his way, he’d probably join in.”

“Maybe,” Luke said.

My cheeks were already warm from the water, but I was sure I was blushing. I had a feeling I knew what they were talking about. “We may need a house really soon,” I said. “The thing with Erica...and Dr. Green’s mom in town...I mean, we’re here now, but Mr. and Mrs. Morgan won’t stay away forever. Nathan has the only house to himself, doesn’t he?”

“Mr. Blackbourne’s place isn’t bad,” Luke said. “But I’m still not sure it would hold all of us together.”

“Where does he live, anyway?” I asked. “I haven’t been there yet.”

“Downtown,” Luke said. “Not too far. But we rarely go these days.”

Gabriel nodded. “He’s usually trying to shake Mr. Hendricks’s people.”

Luke sat up sharply with bubbling suds sashaying off of his shoulders and chest. “Wait a second. We can’t...we have to take care of Hendricks like ASAP.”

“We’re trying,” Gabriel said.

“No,” Luke said. He blinked his dark eyes rapidly and then gazed over at me. “I mean, we can’t get a house for us with Hendricks still following us around. Like this morning. We thought someone was following us and tried to shake him. If he follows us, he may figure out Sang’s living there and then...” He trailed off. “I don’t mean to play the what if game, but I’d rather get him off our backs.”

“We’re getting rid of that problem soon enough,” Gabriel said and waved his hand. “Let’s focus on the house. Let’s let Mr. Blackbourne worry about Hendricks. He’s the man with the plan anyway.”

“Is that what they’re doing now?” I asked.

“Yeah, something’s going on,” Gabriel said. “But let’s put us in charge of family shit.”

“But...shouldn’t we help Mr. Blackbourne?”

“If he needs us, he’ll tell us what to do,” Luke said.

“But family first,” Gabriel said. “And right now, we’ve got a housing problem.”

I wanted to help the others, including Nathan and Kota with Erica, but I considered what they were suggesting. Having our own place would eliminate a large amount of problems. “But if we get a house, what about when Dr. Green’s mother comes to visit? And what about...I mean what if Kota’s mom later wants to stop by where Kota lives?”

“Uncle is going to want to check out any house we buy,” Luke said.

Gabriel twisted his lips and picked at the masque on his face. “Should we all have two spots? Dr. Green’s mom doesn’t come by that often. He could keep his condo and just live there when she’s around.”

Suddenly there were noises coming from Victor’s bedroom. My heart bolted to life and I sat up, aware it could be security or the new maid. How would we explain all this?

The bathroom door opened and North appeared. He wore his usual dark clothing, T-shirt and jeans and boots. There were a few new bruises over his forearms. He was unshaven for more than a few days, which left his face scarier than usual.

Once I realized it was him, my heart relaxed, but only a little.

North lifted a dark eyebrow, gazing at the three of us in the tub. “I’d ask, but I’m sure I’d get a dumb answer.”

“Team meeting,” Gabriel said simply and started to peel off his mask.

“This isn’t a family meeting,” North said.

“I didn’t say family, I said team.” Gabriel jerked the masque off his face, only it came apart at his cheek. “Ow, god damn...” He refocused on North, looking weird with half of his face covered. “It’s team three caballeros. Or amigos.”

“I think he called us stooges,” Luke said with a smirk.

“Right,” Gabriel said. “For the three stooge-amigos.”

I grinned toothily at North, saying nothing. He started it.

North just rolled his eyes. He looked at Gabriel. “I thought I was supposed to pick some people up.”

“Sang’s here while Kota’s checking out another Hendricks stalker and other shit going on,” Gabriel said. “I got left here but now I want to stay.”

“Yeah, we’re on stay out of trouble duty,” Luke said. “Want to join us?” He looked at me. “What do you say?”

I couldn’t help thinking about Luke saying we needed to get back to how we were before. I imagined he meant moments like this. “I guess we can let another stooge in,” I said.

Gabriel and Luke busted out laughing, Gabriel ended up nearly choking, snorting from his nose.

North started to roll his eyes but stopped and shook his head, a smirk forming. “You’re all ridiculous. So, I don’t need to be here?”

“Actually, it’s good you’re here,” Luke said. “We were talking housing logistics.”

North paused and then an eyebrow went up. “For what?”

“Sang needs a house,” he said. He stood up partially and then stopped. “Wait, hang on. Sang, look that way.”

I did instantly, looking at the wall as Luke stood.

“Were you in there naked?” North asked, his deep voice edging on irritated.

“We’re all naked underneath our clothing,” Luke said and I sensed he reached for the robe I brought in. When I was sure he had it on, I turned my head.

North’s mouth was agape, and he looked over at me. “You, too?”

“I’ve got underwear on,” I said.

He pushed a couple of fingers against the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “You all put a sock on the door next time.”

“It’s not that kind of meeting!” Gabriel said.

“Come on,” Luke said, tugging North toward the door. “I’ll fill you in on what happened this morning while we go get lunch.”

“You just had breakfast,” I said.

“I’m in the mood for pickles for some reason,” Luke said.